28/8/1908 - 8/6/1984
Record updated 29-Aug-07
Italian driver who raced mainly Maserati sports cars pre and post the Second World War. He won the 1500cc Italian Sports Car Championship in 1947.
Guido Franco Barbieri was from Scandiano, near Reggio Emilia in Italy. He started competing in a Maserati engined Bugatti against the likes of Count Giovani Lurani in the Italian 1500cc sports car racing.
In 1935 he won the Lecco-Maggio and the Coppa d'Ascoli
In July 1938 he acquired the 1937 ex-works Ettore Bianco Maserati 6CM (1543) in which Aldo Marazza had lost his life earlier in the year. Competing in Italian voiturette racing he finished sixth and last in the race at Varese in Italy in July. In the August he raced in the Coppa Ciano on the 7.218 km road course at Livorno on the western edge of Tuscany, crossing the line in 5th. After a fine 3rd in the Coppa Acerbo, he was sixth and last in the Coppa Edda Ciano at Lucca.
The following year he failed to finish in Tripoli but then finished 3rd in the Voiturette class of the Targa Florio in Favorita Park, Palermo. After a disappointing 6th and last at Napels he won the junior support race before the Coppa Acerbo. The Swiss Grand Prix was run in two heats and a final. One heat for Voiturette car and one for GP cars. The top from each heat going on to a combined final. Unfortunately Barbieri failed to finish his heat.
In 1940 after his relative success the previous year he was back at the Targa Florio voiturette race in Favorita Park. This time he occupied his more usual position of sixth, 3 min 45 secs behind the winner Villoresi.
The war intervened and when he returned to racing in 1946 it was with a 1500cc Maserati sports car the A6 Sport. Before the war, Maserati had drawn up plans for a 6-cyl normally aspirated 1.5-litre engine. Derived directly from the supercharged 6CM, the engine was known as the 'A6TR' (Testa Riportata). It was first used in the car built for Barbieri. A collaboration between Ernesto Maserati and engineer Alberto Massimino, the car was named the 6CS/46 but is more commonly known as the A6 Sport. The car had a rather short motor sport career, however in 1947 Barbieri did win the Italian Sports Car title in the 1500 cc class.
It was the first racing Maserati with an unsupercharged engine and Barberi enjoyed considerable success with the car, winning the 1500cc Circuito di Mantova and the handicap race later the same day beating Tazio Nuvolari (2nd) and Felice Bonetto (4th). He also raced a 4CL that year. It is possible that he bought the car (chassis number 1582) from the factory. He finished 8th in the Circuito di Milano in September in his only race in the car.
In 1947 he won the Circuito di Piacenza with the A6 Sport and, with two seconds, two thirds and a fourth in other rounds, he took the 1500cc Italian Sports Car title.
He raced less in 1948. He was due to appear in the F2 races at the Circuito di Mantova and the Circuito di Firenze in the Maserati A6 but he failed to show both times and by 1949 he had virtually retired though he remained active in the organisation of the sport in his home town.
He did reappear in 1953 to race in the 723Km Giro della Calabria with Mario Della Favera. Driving an Alfa Romeo 1900 they won the under 2 litre class. He also raced a Fiat 1100 in the Mille Miglia that year with Seergio Trevisan though they failed to finish.
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